System Components

Tectia Manager consists of the following main components:

Management Server

The Management Server is the engine of Tectia Manager. It runs the management logics, stores the environment data, and provides management communications to the managed hosts. The Management Server needs to have a public IP address for the Management Agent connections.

The Management Server includes a built-in, hardened web server that provides the Tectia administrators with a TLS-protected web-based administration interfaces.

Management Database

Management Server has a built-in SQL database for storing host information, Tectia software versions, configurations of Tectia and OpenSSH products, Management Agent configurations, administrator audit trails, and logs collected from the managed hosts. Critical control and host information is stored in encrypted format in the database.

Tectia Manager includes also a built-in Oracle client functionality, so alternatively an existing installation of an Oracle database can be used as an external Management Database.

Management Agent

To be able to manage and monitor the remote hosts, a software component called Management Agent is installed on each host. The Management Agent automatically contacts the Management Server and sets up an authenticated and encrypted management connection for host registration and management operations.

The Management Agent takes care of all management actions on the remote host, such as detecting SSH software, installing Tectia products, storing configurations and host key files. It also collects the relevant logs and sends them to the Management Server.

Management Connection

Messaging between the managed hosts and the Management Server is transmitted through a TCP/IP connection. The Management Agents initiate the management connections to the Management Server and the connections are kept on continuously allowing for online monitoring and instant management actions (for example, to push configuration changes to the hosts).

Distribution Server

In very large environments (more than 2000 hosts), Distribution Servers may be deployed within local sub-environments to share the load of management operations.